Human Sacrifice Rituals and the Ancient Maya

We forbid and place strict sanctions on cannibalism, incest, and human sacrifice, considering they epitomize savage or barbarian behavior. Not everyone or every civilized group has shared our sensibilities. Many groups of people have performed human sacrifices as a way of pleasing or appeasing their gods. The Maya were no different in this regard. Inscribed stones bear witness to the Maya practice of human sacrifice. Precious feathers appear where blood would be expected coming from the wounds in some depictions of Maya human sacrifice ritual. Perhaps this symbolizes how valuable the life-giving fluid is to the gods. In the accompanying illustration [see larger image], instead of spurting blood, there are serpents. The common method for human sacrifice seems to have been for the ah nacom (a functionary) to extract the heart quickly, while 4 people associated with Chac, the rain/lightning god, held the struggling victims limbs. Human sacrifices seem to have been made, as well, with arrows, by flaying, decapitation, hurling from a precipice, and throwing the victim into a limestone sinkhole. Warfare was one source of human sacrificial victims. It is thought that losers in the ballgames may also have sometimes been victims, and sacrifice appears to have been connected mainly with ballgames, festivals, and the assumption of power by a new king. Besides humans, the following objects were offered as sacrifices: manatees, jaguars, opposums, parrots, quail, owls, turtles, pumas, crocodiles, squirrels, insects, feathers, dogs, deer, iguanas, turkeys, rubber, cacao, maize, squash seeds, flowers, bark, pine boughs and needles, honey, wax, jade, obsidian, virgin water from caves, shells, and iron pyrite mirrors. Why did the Maya Practice Human Sacrifice? Sign up for the Maya Newsletter Sources: Archaeology and Religion: A Comparison of the Zapotec and Maya, by Joyce Marcus. World Archaeology, Vol. 10, No. 2, Archaeology and Religion (Oct., 1978), pp. 172-191. Procedures in Human Heart Extraction and Ritual Meaning: A Taphonomic Assessment of Anthropogenic Marks in Classic Maya Skeletons Procedures in Human Heart Extraction and Ritual Meaning: A Taphonomic Assessment of Anthropogenic Marks in Classic Maya Skeletons, by Vera Tiesler, Andrea Cucina. Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Dec., 2006), pp. 493-510. Human Sacrifice at Tenochtitlan, by John M. Ingham. Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Jul., 1984), pp. 379-400. Gordon R. Willey and American Archaeology, by Jeremy A. Sabloff, William Leonard Fash

Coming of Age in Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls Essay

In Alice Munro’s â€Å"Boys and Girls,† there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more â€Å"lady-like†. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease. The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much†¦show more content†¦Throughout the story the protagonist is left nameless. This provides the reader with another question of identity. Without a name to attach to the character, we are left withou t an identity. There is distinction between the types of power that are inherent through the children’s separate blood-gender lines. The boy is given a higher status due to being a male, while the girl is relegated to a lower social role because she is female. The young girl’s brother, Laird, becomes the man that is entitled to help his father throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, Laird is a small boy and is not as useful to his father as the young girl is. The mother believes the girl isn’t much help to her father to begin with, as the mother says to the father, â€Å"Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you’ll have a real help† (329). But, as time goes on in the story, Laird gets older and stronger. For example, when Laird and his older sister were fighting, â€Å"and for the first time ever I had to use all my strength against him; even so, he caught and pinned my arm for a moment, really hurting me† (331). Laird is becoming the help ful son that his father needs around the farm, which delegates the young girl to a position of less physical standard to her father. Eventually, the girl realizes that she has to become more like her mother. This realization is shown through the definition, â€Å"A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; it was what I had toShow MoreRelatedBoys And Girls By Alice Munro Summary995 Words   |  4 PagesIn Alice Munros Boys and Girls†, Munro tells a story concerning a young ladys encounter to womanhood in society which is infested with gender roles and stereotypes. Regardless of whether it is the past or the present, there have dependably been gender roles in society. In many homes, it is the womens obligation to deal with the house. This incorporates cleaning, meal arrangements, raising and dealing with the youngsters and in addition the spouse. 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Advantages and disadvantages of plastic surgery Essay Example For Students

Advantages and disadvantages of plastic surgery Essay When the end is to do yourself look better in any signifier, the first option that would strike your head would possibly be fictile surgery. Like everything, plastic surgery besides involves many pros and cons. And when it comes to advantages and disadvantages, you need to be after things before you make up your head to travel for plastic surgery. Although there are many disadvantages associated with plastic surgery the advantages of plastic surgery will decidedly outweigh the disadvantages of plastic surgery. Teasing and twit by person about your characteristics will take their toll on a individuals emotional and mental wellbeing. Not merely old ages of badgering cause emotional cicatrixs but a individual who is dissatisfied about something in them will be every bit affected. Well in this instance even a little process that would impact your self-esteem positively can work admirations for such individuals. Plastic surgery is a process to alter ourselves non merely to look better but to experience better every bit good. The obvious hazard of plastic surgery is that it non merely involves complications but besides the hazard of having bad work. This is for certain, no 1 wants to pass significant sum money to look even worse that earlier or to be affected by side effects involved in plastic surgery. In order to clear up all the possibilities of plastic surgery, whether good or bad, you should confer with your physician before you plan any surgery for you. This will help you in cognizing the hazards involved and to acquire anterior cognition of the medicines to which your organic structure reacts erratically. With decorative surgeries, consequences may be unrealistic, non up to the outlooks of the individual undergoing surgery. The advantages of plastic surgery are no uncertainty dramatic, like the ability to utilize a manus, take tegument malignant neoplastic disease or shut an unfastened lesion, or subtle like decorative or skin surgery or nose job for a immature adult female etc. Cosmetic surgery has become one of the most common events in the lives of people of all age groups, after all everyone takes due advantage from this processes. The motivation behind the surgery can be any, taking birth Markss or unattractive looking cicatrixs, re-scaling of olfactory organs, get rid of hypertrophied chests or any other job. The exclusive intent behind plastic surgery is to acquire a good visual aspect and hence to heighten assurance. While making all this, you should non bury that these surgical processs can turn out to be fatal and has a batch of hazards involved in it. Taking determination in favor of plastic surgery is like seting yourself under proving as there is no warrant of the consequences in the surgical interventions. Another of import thing that you should maintain in your head is that, the sawbones who will execute the surgery is certified and has been qualified for carry oning such sort of surgery. Do non put on the line yourself merely to heighten your externally visual aspect to acquire mental pleasance. The factors that will impact you if you undergo should non be overlooked but the jobs should be considered and rectified.